Got Milk?

We do!

Lola wins a prize for milking.  She's producing a little over 1/2 a gallon of milk a day!  Harvey and the dogs have been enjoying this new abundance.  George really was a milk monster!

A Fairwell to Georgie.

This is the hard part of farm life, losses.
We arrived home yesterday from work to find poor little George dead.  He had caught his collar on a water bucket handle and suffocated.  Ironically enough, George was scheduled to be processed later this winter, but as caretakers of our animals, the peace we have with the life-death cycle comes from knowing that our animals have lived happy lives and that death is quick and peaceful.  Our animals don't suffer.  This loss has been particularly hard. 

George was known as "the milk monster", still nursing regularly from Lola at over 4 months old!  The tears flowed yesterday as Lola filled the milking jars, realizing just how much she was still feeding her baby boy.

George was a snaggle-horned goat who loved bridge-bouncing and napping on the cows.  He loved little apple pieces, mouthfuls of alfalfa, and back rubs.  We will remember him for his joyful spirit. 

Rest in peace little Georgie.

Acadia National Park

We just returned home from a few days at Acadia National Park, celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary.  Yup, still married to this guy:

We had a great time visiting the tidal pools and watching the crabs fight over mussels as the tides flowed out to the ocean.  During low tide we were able to hike across to Bar Island on the sand bar, which is so fun to see during high tide as the island is completely surrounded by water.  We went for many hikes throughout the park, one of our favorites went from our Bed and Breakfast (the Cranberry Hill Inn), across the causeway and up to the top of flying mountain.  From there you can look down the fiord (the only one on the Eastern coast of the US)!  Our favorite activity was exploring the area via the many carriage roads on our tandem bike. We never made it into the main part of the park or around the loop road by car...maybe next trip.

The 2016 Great Pumpkin Harvest

Today was the great pumpkin harvest of 2016.  

We pulled over 50 large pumpkins and 25 pie pumpkins out of the garden and loaded them into the pick-up truck.   

Nothing says, "Fall" better than a truck full of pumpkins!

Next weekend...out comes the gourds!!!

Liquid Gold.

Honey harvest 2016 is (most likely) in the books.  One 8 frame medium super was removed from "Hive B" with the help of a newly acquired escape board that didn't actually work all that well.  Lots of work with my smoker and a brush was necessary to remove the remaining inhabitants from the box.  We were lucky to have some company to help with the rest of the process.

 

 

We removed the comb filled frames from the box.  Because we use frames without any foundation, the bees build all of their own comb.  In order to harvest the honey, we actually have to crush the comb which releases the honey into a mixture with the wax comb.



After the comb was crushed, Ryan and I poured the mixture into a large strainer that is suspended over a bucket.

The end result after a few hours of straining: a bit over 25 pounds of liquid gold.

 

Maybe not liquid gold but as Teresa's very nice (custom and professional looking) stickers will tell you: raw wildflower honey. 

 

Will we harvest more this year?  It is unlikely unless the bees go a bit crazy. 

 

As an aside, no bees or beekeepers were harmed in the production of this honey.  The bees can take care of themselves and I have my fancy bee suit.  Ryan wasn't so lucky and actually sustained two stings while watching from what seemed like a safe distance.  Sorry dude.

Summer Vacation

We had a great time in both Banff National Park and Jasper National Park last week.  Over 4 days we managed to hike over 40 miles with a total elevation gain of about 10,000 feet.

The fields were all in bloom with wildflowers during our hike of Sentinel Pass.

Eric continues to have great wildlife eyes and managed to spot a momma grizzly bear and her cub digging on the mountain.  This was the second grizzly spotted that day, as the group hiking ahead of us had a juvenile male cross the path in front of them a few hours prior.  Eric not only remains excellent at spotting wildlife, but apparently is very attractive to them as well!!

  This rare breed of wildlife was also spotted...

oh wait, no, sorry...

that's just Eric being weird! 

Overall it was a great trip, with great friends.

2016 Meat Birds

This year the meat birds received a new house!  After hours of grueling work, the new and improved chicken tractor was finally completed.  It remained outside of the field, in the yard this year, out of fear the goats or cows might destroy the tractor minutes after it was completed.  Eric processed the birds yesterday.  This was a week earlier than last year, so we had more reasonable sized chickens (4-5 pounds) compared to last years 6-7 pound giants.  He continues to improve his butchering skills and was able to process each chicken in under 3 minutes!  We processed a total of 24 chickens this year.

A fresh chicken dinner awaits any Vermont visitors!